Ah, another rough diamond from the school of “training the housewives of tomorrow”. Many are the generations of little girls that were saddled with “mini-mum” plastic ironing boards and carpet sweepers from an early age (all the better to brain your little brother with), and many the house that was cluttered with all the paraphernalia of pretend cleaning without any real cleaning actually getting done. ... more>>>

There’s nothing wrong with boys playing with dolls! But just in case there’s the slightest chance that doing so could turn ‘em a bit… y’know, make sure the dolls are butch soldier types who look good in a buzzcut and military uniform. So went the thinking, we assume, when Palitoy imported America’s GI Joe and rebranded him Action Man for Brit kids in the - ahem - swinging ’60s. ... more>>>

Amplified by the almost permanent presence of The Hobbit on ‘70s and ‘80s English Lit. syllabuses, Dungeons & Dragons offered those who were unpopular in the playground some solace in an imaginary Tolkein-esque world that they could control. ... more>>>

One word. Decals. It’s hard to imagine a time when we hadn’t heard of them; a time, perhaps, when we could see or think of RAF livery without immediately picturing one; a time before we soaked one in a bowl of warm water, slid it off its backing paper and placed it on the wing of a Spitfire or a Wellington Bomber. But that was in those elusive and pre-evocative days we tend not to concern ourselves with here at TVC Towers. So there it is: a word that only exists for us in the context of one thing, Airfix models. ... more>>>

Whilst the foreign car factories were laying off staff in favour of this toy’s older brothers, kids across the land were celebrating their new-found ability to move objects around the kitchen table by a mere complicated sequence of instructions input into the Armatron’s console. Of course, anything slightly more delicate than the plastic blocks included in the box (an egg, say) would break under pressure between the rubberised jaws, so any notions of performing David Banner-style laboratory experiments were soon similarly shattered. ... more>>>

Where to start? Barbie had been knocking around since the arse-end of the ‘Fifties in one perma-tanned form or other, but we’re most interested in the so-called “aspirational” late ‘Eighties when manufacturer Mattel realised they could sell the dolls as collectors items as well as mere playthings. ... more>>>

Battling Tops? Why, ‘tis a grand olde European folk game, sir, as famously depicted in 16th century paintings by Brueghel and his ilk. However, we suspect his Battling Tops weren’t housed in a blue plastic arena, presumably didn’t go by such wrestling ring monikers as Hurricane Hank, Dizzy Dan or, er, Smarty Smitty, and were certainly far from Ideal. ... more>>>

Way before The X Files, partwork magazines like The Unexplained and telly shows like The Crazy World Of Arthur C. Clarke (he invented satellites, you know) cashed in on our periodic fascination for paranormal phenomena, although it was actually Charles Berlitz who wrote a book in 1974 called “The Bermuda Triangle”. That renewed interest, perhaps also spurred on by the Barry Manilow hit of the same name, made this a very popular game in the early ‘80s. ... more>>>

Resembling nothing more than a vehicle from Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons redesigned by Clive Sinclair, Big Trak was controlled, as the presenters of Tomorrow’s World breathlessly related, by that all-important “silicon chip”. With just a few taps on the keypad, this fully programmable beast could be instructed to move and turn in different directions, fire up its “photon cannon”, and make a couple of modish electronic noises. It was, of course, mainly used to frighten the family pet. ... more>>>

Bluebird was founded on two very solid principles. Small girls like doll’s houses. Small girls also like plastic tea sets for serving cups of invisible tea to their dollies. Then someone fell into a filing cabinet at the office Christmas party and came up with the bizarre idea of crossbreeding the two. Yes, this was a doll’s house, but made of yellow plastic and shaped like a huge teapot. ... more>>>